Data recovery and disk repair questions and discussions related to old-fashioned SATA, SAS, SCSI, IDE, MFM hard drives - any type of storage device that has moving parts
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WD1200BEVS 120GB Sata strange behavior

September 13th, 2024, 15:46

Hey guys,
this is my first time posting on this forum, nice to meet you all.

I recently got this Western Digital WD1200BEVS 120GB Sata 2,5" HDD from a friend, to check whats wrong with it,
but really, i dont know what to do with that disc.

What its doing: Spinning up, clicking and doing some strange kind of Head noises i have absolutely never heard before (sounds like a buzzing rubber band?), it clicks random amount of times and then spins down and starts back up, while the disc hasnt even come to a full stop. It restarts halfway while spinning down. My best guess is the PCB is fried, but i didnt found anything while it was removed from the disc.
I checked for any discoloration, but didnt found anything. Also nothing that gets too hot.
Anyone has an idea what can cause an error like this? Its like its stuck in some kind of odd loop.

If you have any idea please let me know, cause i dont know what to do.
The data is not that important, but would be nice, if the disc would be repairable.

Thanks in advance,
greetings Someone

Re: WD1200BEVS 120GB Sata strange behavior

September 13th, 2024, 16:13

It's not PCB problem. If the owner wants the data back, give this drive back and send him to any data recovery lab. You'll destroy it by powering up over and over with clicking heads. Why did you take the job with no experience with drives?
Don't power on this drive anymore.

Re: WD1200BEVS 120GB Sata strange behavior

September 14th, 2024, 6:32

I just wanted to know what you think it is. I have never seen any fault like this, neither i found anyone else who had this.

If its not the PCB, what else should it be?

Also i didnt power it on anymore and as I said, the data isnt important.

Re: WD1200BEVS 120GB Sata strange behavior

September 14th, 2024, 8:03

95% that it's heads damage + probably media damage. But just based on what was written. It should be checked before any actions.

Re: WD1200BEVS 120GB Sata strange behavior

September 14th, 2024, 10:42

Does the head really can lead to this?
I know the COD but it doesnt explain, why it restarts halfway through spinning down.
The clicking noise it makes sounds very different, sometimes it sounds like its the Click of Death, sometimes it sounds like its just clicking like normal operation. But it does this in sth like 5 seconds. Also the HDD is clicking random amount of times, which makes no sense to me.

The sound is very odd and its hard to describe, unlike the sound of a normal Click of Death and spindown.

Re: WD1200BEVS 120GB Sata strange behavior

September 14th, 2024, 11:26

Don't know the full model of this drive(WD1200BEVS is not full model) and what is the real problem as we rely on what you descrive what you hear. Want to test it? If it has external ROM, and you have all nesesary tools and skills, move it to a new PCB and check. If it acts the same - i'm right. If it acts different but no data access - you failed with soldering/ drive has media damage/ modules problem. If it works ok - i was wrong.
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